Annual dance is integral to supporting special-needs school
By Reagan Scott
for the Register
Villa Marie Home and School for Exceptional Children held a “Hoedown for Villa Marie” Feb. 6 at the Sandhills Global Event Center in Lincoln.
This marked the 62nd year the school has held its annual dance, and more than 600 people came out to celebrate Villa Marie and support its mission.
Founded in 1964 by Msgr. James Dawson, Villa Marie operates as both a day school and boarding school for children with special needs. This year, the school has 15 students enrolled, five of whom live there during the school week.
With no dedicated parish to support the school, Villa Marie relies on the generosity of the diocese to provide tuition support for its students and help with operating costs. The school’s annual dance is an integral part of fundraising efforts.
Sasha Kelly, the director of development and advancement for Villa Marie, has served in her role for almost a year and a half. This year’s dance was the second she’s coordinated in her time working for the school.
When she took on the position, Kelly was asked to try to increase attendance at the 2025 dance from its average of 350 people to 400. After setting an even more ambitious target of 450 people, Kelly was amazed to have 515 people in attendance.
Hoping to repeat last year’s success, Kelly made it a goal to have 500 attend this year, and said it was so uplifting to exceed that goal, and that so many people wanted to come.
“Seeing how many people care about supporting special needs kids in the Catholic schools is a really good feeling,” she said, “especially as a special needs mom.”
It is because of her personal connection to the special needs community that Kelly feels she has been able to find so much success in advocating for Villa Marie, and the impact is clearly seen and felt in the increased engagement with the fundraiser over the past couple of years.
Kelly said this year’s Hoedown had 29 corporate sponsors, up from the typical five to 10.
“It is truly like the community is rallying behind this mission, and I think it’s very uplifting for me and needed for me to see that people want this to be successful. People care about these kids,” Kelly said.
Kelly said what’s also amazing to her is the fact that the majority of people in attendance at the Hoedown don’t have kids with special needs.
“To think that they’re willing to support the cause and donate to the cause without even having any personal gain for them is incredible. It gives me a lot of hope for Villa Marie’s future,” she said.
One thing that makes the annual dance different from many fundraisers is its family-friendly atmosphere. Villa Marie’s students are always in attendance, and parents are encouraged to bring their own children to dance and enjoy the evening.
“It’s not pretentious, it’s not stuffy, it’s just fun. It reminds me more of a wedding reception where you’re with family and everyone’s on the floor dancing together and walking around talking, so it’s very different from your traditional banquet fundraiser,” Kelly said.
The Hoedown began with a welcome from the Villa Marie students. They sang their school song, which they came up with at their annual summer camp last year. The song was followed by a dinner buffet. This year also marked the fundraiser’s first live auction, which followed dinner.
This was the second year the fundraiser has had a hoedown theme, and an integral part of the evening was an additional performance by the students. At the event, the Villa Marie students got to pair up with 15 eighth-graders from St. Michael School in Lincoln to perform a line dance choreographed by Kallie Easley, the owner and director of intermix Dance Company in Lincoln.
Kelly said the Villa Marie students have been going to St. Michael School to practice the dance every week since the start of the semester. She said the students loved having the chance to make connections and form friendships with the kids at St. Michael.
“It’s just been fun to watch them build those friendships,” Kelly said. “And being a small school, it’s good for our kids to have that exposure and opportunity.”
The Villa Marie students also got to dance with eighth-graders from St. Michael at last year’s Hoedown, and many of those eighth-graders, now freshmen at Pius X High School, reached out to Kelly to ask if they could come back and help with the dance in some way this year because they enjoyed it so much.
Kelly said that to date, the school has raised more than $250,000 in profit from the Hoedown, which included a $50,000 matching gift provided by an anonymous donor, who increased their matching gift from $25,000 last year after seeing how many people wanted to support the mission at the 2025 event.
Grateful for the generosity of this donor, Kelly was also heartened that even before the dance, people expressed they were excited to donate knowing that there were additional funds available to the school as a result of their support.
Kelly also wanted to give special thanks to the event’s presenting sponsor, the Nebraska State Knights of Columbus.
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Courtesy photos
“They’ve been our presenting sponsor for years and I am just mesmerized at how supportive and dedicated they are to those with intellectual disabilities,” she said. “And it’s not even just the state group. I think that Villa Marie would not survive without the Knights of Columbus and their support, and that’s as a state council all the way down to every single parish.”
Multiple Knights of Columbus chapters from parishes in Lincoln and the surrounding area paid for tables at the Hoedown, and Kelly said the Knights bring paper products at the beginning of every school year, and parish chapters take the students for outings and come out to grill for their summer camp every year.
“It’s like everywhere I turn the Knights of Columbus are doing something for Villa Marie,” Kelly said.
Now that Villa Marie has been in operation for more than 60 years, the school is looking forward, to envision what the next 60 plus years could look like. This means that over the past year, the school has been working on a new strategic plan, gathering feedback from parents, educators, donors and diocesan leadership in an attempt to determine how best to support students in today’s world, which looks very different than it did when the school opened.
Kelly said trying to look so far ahead is challenging as they work to figure out how to serve the school’s current and future students well, while operating in a way that is financially sustainable, but events like the Hoedown show her how willing people are to help and support the mission of the school and, by extension, the pro-life movement.
“I think we forget that pro-life is not just unborn babies or newborn babies in diapers,” she said. “It’s all dignity of life, and Villa Marie is the special needs heartbeat of the diocese.
“My prayer is that we can just grow it and have a bigger impact on more kids, and I think the Hoedown is a testament to the fact that people are willing and wanting to be a part of it.”
Kelly said if people feel called to support the school, it’s not too late to donate at www.villamarieschool.com.
